Let's be real for a second - "Art" is pretty irrelevant outside of the entertainment industry right now. If you care about art outside video games, movies, cartoons, you're probably gay.
Moving on, my question is, why does it seem like artists draw the short straw in the game development industry? Both in fame, power, and wealth. Seems like game designers and prevalent programmers like John Carmack are highly known and well respected, but I can't really say the same thing for artists.
Do you know the art director for Blizzard? For Valve? For Bethesda? For Riot? For CDPR? Nah man, we don't know who the fuck they are. Even with freelance artists, they are only ever known among a few of the art community.
So, what's the deal? Carmack used his programming skills to become a role model in the game industry and has accumulated a $40 million net worth over the years.
Where does an artist go to get that kind of fame and wealth? Carmack makes great engines that are indispensable tools for game development companies. How can an artist do anything even remotely as important?
>>2414679
carmack is not your average fucking programmer. Romero. The others are just fucking PR and executive heads.
something like 70% of a modern AAA games budge gpes tp art. And those artists are getting paid very well. When Ifirst joined EA I started at $30h at very cost effective city.
>>2414679
Most of the money in art is in teaching, it's a vicious circle of artists preying on lesser artists to pay their bills. At least the costs associated with learning online and in Ateliers is ethical/reasonable without a lot of risk.
>only concept art is important
>why don't people think concept art is important
OP maybe concept art just isn't that important?
people will always need art for their houses, but most people don't play video games.
>>2414708
Okay let's look at Illustration. Blizzard as a recent example just came out with some art book that has lore in it.
Lots of illustrations. No one really knows who even did work on the book.
Let's look at books as another example. Author's name right on their book - that's perfectly cool. What about the artist who did the cover? Nah, no one knows because his name is never anywhere on that book. There's no serious collab between author and artist to get a serious cover going that establishes the mood of the book outright.
It's just "Hey I'll pay you $100 so you don't starve, make a cover for my book."
Why do we have to be the bitch all the time?
>>2414708
This
The reason I am trying to study art is to add a skill to my repitiore, its always nice to be able to present a nice concept plan to a client rather than contract an architect.
as with all things, people need to look at the broader scope and ask what the skill could really be used for.
>>2414710
>Why do we have to be the bitch all the time?
We don't
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PiqC-vfYLw
Dont shit on carmack, hes a god
Carmack isn't just a programmer, he's also an engineer. He isn't a typical code monkey that might only do a pile of LUA scripting or game behavior development (aka stuff a junior/intermediate programmer might do at EA). The fucker engineers rockets in his spare time as a hobby.
I can't think of many other programmers OR artists that do this as a hobby.
He's mostly famous because he engineered the techniques used by games to display a large quantity of frames on the screen per second, as well as fuck loads of other things that many game engines have built in now. He's built entire game engines, and in some cases also the tools that both artists and programmers are using to develop in said engine.
That's a far higher achievement than your average programmer or artist, who are just creating code or art assets, not engineering new tools for the artists or other programmers to use.
Additionally, artists are primarily hired for making art assets, not for much else. In some companies, such as Valve, they aren't so strict on what each person does. But a lot of game companies are old fashioned, unwilling to adapt to people who are both artists and coders.
How often do you see art directors who are also engineers? Who are making new tools for artists to use, to create art in new ways?
For an artist to get such wealth, they would have to be an art director that also develops new ways to make art. They'd have to be an engineer of art-related ventures. This is a rare occasion, because so many art tools aren't developed by actual artists.
They're developed by programmers that understand what an artist is trying to achieve, but who don't pursue art their-selves.
It can be a rare occasion to see artists do anything other than art assets. If they're coding, it's still coding art assets. Eg. graphics shaders.
Most of the tools used for this are made by engineers, with the help of technical artists.
Artists that are also programmers do exist though, but they're mostly indie.
>>2414679
>Where does an artist go to get that kind of fame and wealth?
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2010-12-22/magazine/one-piece-creator-oda-made-2-billion-yen
And he is still drawing that series this year.
Is this faget legit using faceless and expendable multimediafags as an example that art is irrelevant? That's like saying art wasn't relevant in the 1800s because people didn't know every single newspaper illustrator by name.
If you want to transcend the art trenches, take your art skills and create a product of value for consumers. You don't have to depend on clients for the rest of your life/career. You are free to create your own products and capitalize on your art skills. Plenty of artists do this. It takes some balls, initiative and entrepeneurial spirit though, I think most artists lack that or develop that quite late. Which is also why most live rather humble doing freelance work.
I think teaching is just so prevalent because it's kind of an obvious branch to expand towards. You've got the skills, you've probably got a bit of a following, of primarily people interested in doing what you do so obviously you can expect some dosh via gumroads/tutoring and whatnot. It's a natural evolution in the income-diversification process and can easily stack another 5-10k on your anual income. That's why you see everyone doing it, some even investing heavily into creating an entire brand around it (kiwi something, learnsquared, marc brunet something thing, sycra).
art is highly, highly entrepeneurial. i've come to appreciate that though, because it really feels like you are NOT in the 'art industry'. you are in the 'running a business based around capitalizing on my ability to draw and paint - industry'. and sky is the limit in terms of income. it really is. likewise you aren't guaranteed even a fucking dollar. it's both scary and empowering.
It's not about the fame, nor wealth. You're confusing career with personal achievements, which one can achieve and is not related to this or that career.
Also, you think like a 14yo.
>>2414746
I ran out of characters on this, but I should mention...this is only partially related to how artists are credited and paid for their work. It more-so only explains the difference between a regular programmer, a regular artist, an engineer such as Carmack, and a technical artist who might also engineer new ways of creating art.
The topic of wealth/fame seems like a separate issue.
While a lot of game companies do credit/pay artists well, yeah I can understand that some probably don't. There's many game companies that over-work, under-credit and under-pay their employees, however that probably is across the board, not just artists.
Additionally, if this is as big a problem as it seems, it could be due to how dispensable the roles are. Are you a lead technical artist, or were you just a junior artist in the art department, working on foliage and sky-boxes?
This comes to mind, because there's also the same equivalent roles for programmers.
You have your lead programers/engineers, and then you have the dispensable, junior programmers that might only work on, say, scripting character behavior or NPC interactions.
It's an interesting topic because these dispensable roles are still creating content that plays a primary role in driving the sales of the product.
Is the Blizzard example of the lore books an isolated occurrence, or does this happen quite often? Is it exclusively only happening for products they deem as additional merchandise for marketing, or is it also a huge problem for the actual artists making the core product being sold?
I can't see any valid reason to not credit an artist, especially if their work is the majority of a product.
I wonder if its a case of artists simply not asking for credit, because they've been conditioned for so long to simply accept the work and be thankful for whatever cash it's earning?
Would it suddenly change if these artists simply asked for credit to be given?
That's the interesting question.
>>2414748
Pretty much this.
Or you can just become the next sakimichan.
Obvious sacrifices in dignity will be made, but hey at least you'll be filthy rich.
>>2414790
you can't plan to be sakimichan or a famous manga artist. There's a certain amount of luck that is uncontrollable involved in that.
Mosts artists are better off getting a marketable skill and getting a studio job.
>>2414686
I won't ask you to share your work, because I don't know of a single time that's actually resulted in anything, but could you give a general idea of what level you were at when you got a job there?
>>2414710
Keith thompson is the only one I know, but he's largely responsible for the popularity of the series he illustrated for. I think it really really depends on the focus of the books. Chris Van Allsburg and shaun Tan were illustrators first and writers second, and that's what people remember them for.
>>2414679
>Let's be real for a second - "Woodcarving" is pretty irrelevant outside of the furniture industry right now. If you care about woodcarving outside Ikea, you're probably gay. etc...
tl;dr
It is literally a hobby. Why would you be making money off of it? If you weren't learning how to draw just for the love of drawing, you were never going to make it anyways. Go cry about it.
